Twin Demons
by ice illuser
Summary: We're the same, and yet we're different. We both have demons, and we both have loves.


Disclaimer: I really can't think up of scary stories that easily, so how could I own Higurashi? Obviously the owner isn't me.

A/N: After obsessively working my way through the Higurashi anime I have been inspired to write a fic for my favorite character, Mion. And of course, what's Mion without her twin, Shion? So please enjoy as I attempt to evoke the creepy mood of Higurashi. (Of course, for that I would need the sound effect of cicadas playing at the same time…oh well.) This fic deals mostly with the Watanagashi and Meakashi arcs since that's where Mion and Shion make their biggest appearances.

--

I am Mion called Shion through a strange twist of fate. Or maybe not so strange since we have been switching identities with each other forever and still continued to do so even after Onee was tattooed with the Sonozaki clan symbol.

Onee is the one branded with the tattoo of a demon, but I wonder if somehow the demon inside me was born to replace the tattoo I should have had.

The demon inside me…how to describe it? The best way I can explain it is that it's love. A love so twisted, a love so black, a love so consuming that it is nearly indistinguishable from hate when awakened.

So it makes sense that it raised its ugly head when I fell so hard for Satoshi-kun.

Satoshi-kun.

I was so worried that you would hate me when you found out I was really Shion, not Mion like you thought. A foolish worry isn't it, when you compare it against everything else we would one day start to worry about? But we were children; it never occurred to us what deep black depths all of us could sink.

Or to be more precise, I knew in the heart of my soul exactly what I was capable of, but I never thought I'd ever let that demon loose.

So _much _blood splattering on that wooden floor.

I love Onee very much, even if I am the unwanted younger twin of the Sonozaki family while she is the deputy head of the family. We're very close; we tell each other everything from our latest brand of mischief to our loves. After all, the only way we could impersonate each other so well would be if we loved each other so.

This is why my demon always lashed out at her first in all the worlds we've been through.

I love her so much, but she's like the better, stronger reflection of me. The demon inside me awoke once again when it saw her in a situation like mine, except better because the family would not oppose her choice of who she had fallen for while I had been punished. It wanted; I wanted to twist her into what I was. It couldn't, I couldn't stand to see her so carefree when the one I loved was gone.

It is a love so deep and overwhelming that even I can barely distinguish it from hate.

Which is why in some worlds I detest Satoko with every fiber of my being, and in others I want to keep every blonde hair on her head safe. No matter which world, Satoshi-kun will instruct me to keep her safe, and as long as Kei-chan hands Onee that girly little doll, I will devoutly follow his last instructions to me.

But if he doesn't, if he makes Onee cry, if he reminds me of my feelings towards Satoshi-kun and where that led, it awakens so I completely disregard those instructions and ram that knife into Satoko's delicate body with unholy glee until her blood stains that wooden floor and she dies.

I…can still remember those screams. They haunt my dreams even though now those nightmarish worlds are over.

Onee's hysterical pleading.

Rika's grandfather choking.

Rika slamming that knife into her neck repeatedly.

Satoko attempting not to scream, and failing.

My own shrieking insane laughter, not so different from screams.

Those are all my sins. There is no excuse for what I have done, for what I will always be capable of doing.

But I have atoned for it the best I could have, haven't I? I have been a good little sister, and no one could have been more caring towards Satoko, besides Satoshi-kun. I even seriously wanted to kill her uncle for abusing her in one world.

Onee will get Kei-chan. She might not think so, since she has little confidence in that area, but I know. I've seen the looks he gives her that she doesn't notice. But what sort of ending will I get?

Satoshi-kun, you don't think that these hands are too filthy, too blood-stained to touch you, do you? I would understand if you did. After all in one horrible world, I was the one who brutally killed your beloved little sister.

But I…but I _really don't want_ you to reject me, Satoshi-kun. It's true, I have done many horrendous things in that world, but even in that world it was for you, Satoshi-kun. That's how deep, how twisted my love, my demon is for you.

You may be horrified.

You probably are horrified.

But since you are still sleeping right now, Satoshi-kun, and this time we have managed to make a world with a happy ending, I can still hope that when you wake up, and after I tearfully and chokingly confess everything that I have done, you will smile, forgive me, and pat my head as you did before.

But if you don't, I will understand.

After all, I am Sonozaki Shion, the girl with a demon in her soul.

--

I am Shion called Mion through a bit of mix-up. The duties of being deputy head were suddenly thrust onto me as soon as I was branded with that tattoo of a demon, and I have never been able to go back.

It's not that bad though, being deputy head of the Sonozaki family. It's a lot of work, and yes all the power does lie with Granny, but I know I have it far easier than Shion.

She's always had it rough.

I love her very much; we're twins after all. But sometimes being deputy head and being her Onee that she laughs with isn't possible.

It's not easy to not back away and order your little sister to strip off three of her fingernails in repentance. It's not easy to stand there and watch it happen. It's not easy to order people to force her to do the last one even as she screams through the bag over her head.

But I did all of that.

Oh, I repented afterwards of course. Went down there, pulled out that nasty little torture device, and made it so that we were identical twins again, but is that really enough in the end? Because sometimes I think that I'm always the one that's being given the easy way out.

Every single time.

I know that in every world she attempts to kill me right after she finds out that Satoshi-kun has disappeared, and I have never faulted her for that. If our situations were reversed, and they very well could have been, then I would feel the same way. Besides, even her choking me doesn't feel a large enough punishment for what I have put her through.

Even being killed multiple times in that repeating world by her never quite seems enough to atone for my own sins.

I've always known that Shion has been a little crazy. Considering how she is viewed as the unwanted younger twin, maybe it even makes sense. I can never blame her for it; I can only hope to restrain her from striking out against people besides myself.

That doesn't mean I'm not scared of her when those pupils dilate.

I'm terrified.

Terrified because those green eyes filled with raging hate, that mouth issuing forth gleefully insane laughter, those delicate hands stained with blood, it all could have been me.

In that world, she is my twisted reflection, what I could have been if it hadn't been for a case of mistaken identity years before that.

And I know I was the one who caused her to snap.

That doll. That stupid, stupid, frilly little doll.

I'm still not sure why it hurt so much when Kei-chan didn't even think of me and handed it straight to Rena. I had kept up my image as a tomboy for years; of course Kei-chan wouldn't have given me the doll, he was positive I didn't want it.

That's true. I didn't actually want the doll, I wanted Kei-chan's acknowledgement that he considered me a girl. And in those worlds where I never got it, I would always go tearfully to Shion and complain about my situation.

Such insensitivity. I should have known better. Shion's tragedy with Satoshi-kun was a much worse situation than mine with Kei-chan. And although she laughed and encouraged me not to give up, I know that's when her madness reawakened inside of her.

It's no reassurance that in the world where Kei-chan does give me the doll that Shion never goes on a murderous rampage. There's blood on my hands, no matter the fact that I never picked up the knife.

I also caused Rena's rampage inadvertently, in a different world. I moved the dismembered remains of her previous victims to the well in the Sonozaki compound, and with that action cemented her paranoid notion that the Sonozaki family was out to get her.

So really, many of those horrible incidents in all those worlds were my entire fault.

We're in a happy world now, one where we have managed to avoid the murders and deaths of the past, and the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, but I feel the weight of those lives on my soul.

Shion might have a demon residing inside her, but I seem to have to play the demon's advocate each and every time.

She'll get the happy ending she so rightly deserves when Satoshi-kun wakes up since she has been so devoted to him, but I? Kei-chan will most likely choose Rena over me as they have more things in common than Kei-chan and I do.

That's fine. It's time to atone for my many sins anyway.

I am Sonozaki Mion, the demon's advocate after all.

--

A/N: I tried to make the two pieces parallel, although I'm not sure how well I managed to do that. Writing Mion's part was actually harder than writing Shion's, since Shion had more personal screen time than Mion. Please review! On another note, I've been thinking about the comparison between the Sonozaki twins and the Hitachiin twins from Ouran High School Host Club. On first appearances, it might seem that Mion is Hikaru and Shion is Kaoru since Mion is tomboyish while Shion is more girly, but I think it's the opposite. Mion is Kaoru because she's calmer and more level-headed while Shion is Hikaru because she's much more reckless and impulsive.


End file.
